Sri Lanka featured in National Geographic Traveler

National Geographic Magazine once name Sri Lanka as one of their top destinations for this year. After the end of 30 years civil war, the country has become a peaceful and safe place for the travelers, hence boost the tourism industry in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was a world famous tourist destination for edges. Apart from the traditional sun and beach tourism, Sri Lanka has moved into various new dimensions of tourism giving travelers ample choices to enjoy their stay in Sri Lanka. The National Geographic Traveler magazine has a special supplement dedicated to Sri Lanka, a 36 paged guide to travel in Sri Lanka. They have highlighted the country’s top 21 attractions for travelers in the  April 2013 issue.

Sri Lanka: Top 21 highlights

Wildlife of Formosa...

Taiwan is an island nation which is half the size of Sri Lanka (36,193 km2) in the western Pacific and straddling the Tropic of Cancer. Taiwan has a range of climatic zones from tropical to temperate, resulting in tremendous Biodiversity. However, the recent boost in economy with the increase of development  in the latter part of the 20th century, has given rise to serious issues related to the environment of the country. The country boast of over 20% of protected areas of its land cover.

Its claim to have a total of 1,257 fauna species, where 252 of them are endemic to the country (20%). The situation of the floral community is total species, 4,077 and endemic species of 1,067 (26%). You can find more information here. 

Following are some small collection of wildlife encountered by my stay in Taiwan, since 2011. 

The Central Formosa Toad - Bufo bankorensis (Bufonidae family) is a big toad species endemic to Taiwan. Very common toad in Taiwan. Habitat loss, collection for food and traditional medicine are common threats to this fork.

Babina adenopleura (Ranidae family) is a medium-sized frog species found in Taiwan, China, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand.IUCN Conservation status of this species is Least Concern (LC). [Previously known as Rana adenopleura]

The Beauty of Taiwan – In timelapse...

I recently came across with this time-lapse video about  Taiwan. They say it was shot on Canon DSLR’s over a period of two weeks covering Taiwan’s some most visited hot spots. I was delighted, hope you’ll enjoy it too… 

Wish you all a Happy New Year 2013!

Hope this 2013 would be a much greener and peaceful year...

World Bamboo Day - September 18

World Bamboo Day was declared by the Thai Royal Forest Department on 18 September in Bangkok, during the 8^th World Bamboo Congress in 2009. This declaration is an effort to increase the awareness of bamboo globally. 

Actually I never of this before. Just saw in the news flash as there was a activities to cerebrate this day in Sri Lanka. I'm not sure whether its officially accepted by the UN which normally do for other "days". However this is for the conservation and awareness of Bamboo therefore its good to have a "day" celebrate! 

Back in Sri Lanka we do have several varieties of bamboo and we do use them for various purposes. But unlike in east Asian countries like Taiwan, China, Japan etc we do not eat them. In Taiwan Bamboo shoots are well famous as a food.

http://worldbambooday.org

Taiwan Birdathon

"Yunlin and Chiayi counties, along with Greater Tainan, are to hold a marathon-style bird-watching race for the first time in November to raise environmental awareness and promote ecotourism on the island"

This is interesting, though I have herd of this before in central Taiwan’s Dasyueshan National Forest Recreation Area earlier this year. It seems this time they have focused the southern and the coastal birds especially the migrant endangered black-faced spoonbill. 

This is a different idea, However, I have my doubts that this will be a good way of promoting so called ecotourism  and raise environmental awareness. We'll see who's the winner and the count this time as the last event it was around 150 species for this 30 hour challenge. 

For more information checkout ... http://en.taiwanbirdathon.org/

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur is the sixth most visited city in the world and following are some of the photos taken in a short trip to the city center on the way to Taiwan from Sri Lanka.

City Panorama of the KL, Malaysia

The Petronas Twin Towers -  tallest twin buildings in the world 

Malaysian ringgit

Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Kuala Lumpur's oldest Hindu temple

The Kuala Lumpur Tower - the 7th tallest telecommunication tower in the world

Colonial remaining s of the city

Telecom Museum

St. Andrew's Church

Jamek Mosque

KL's central market

Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur's  Chinatown

Oil palm plantation